WASHINGTON — When China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin sat down together in Moscow on Monday, the trappings were those of imperial power, and the bonhomie hung heavy in the air.
They addressed one another as “dear friend.” They chatted while sitting in ornate chairs in a gilded salon. On Tuesday, the two autocratic presidents will dine at a state banquet in a richly frescoed hall used by a long line of Russian czars.
It was a clear message of two great powers coming together — along with the conspicuous absence of a third: the United States.
